Why the New Testament Chooses Agape

Advent E4 — We’re ending our short Advent series with a reflection on love. In the Hebrew Bible, the word “ahavah” involves faithfulness to God and living by his wisdom, but it also means showing practical care to others—especially the vulnerable. Jesus views this love for God and neighbor as the greatest command, and he expands it to be indiscriminate, radical kindness and generosity even toward our enemies. The New Testament authors were so blown away by this kind of love that they adopted an obscure Greek word for love, “agape,” and redefined it to be a self-giving, sacrificial love that Jesus demonstrates in his life, teaching, death, and resurrection. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the main biblical words for love, showing how the story of Advent characterizes agape as God’s own essence and our calling. 

FULL SHOW NOTES

For chapter-by-chapter notes including summaries, referenced Scriptures, biblical words, and reflection questions, check out the full show notes for this episode.

CHAPTERS

1. The Hebrew Bible’s Understanding of Love (0:00–13:17)
2. Agape and Jesus’ Redefinition of Love (13:17–21:25)
3. God Is Love (21:25–31:10)
4. Reflections on Love With JoDee (31:10-36:12)

OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

View this episode’s official transcript.

REFERENCED RESOURCES

• The Affections of Christ Jesus: Love at the Heart of Paul’s Theology by Nijay Gupta
• Ahavah / Love: Though not referenced directly in the episode, this 2017 video explores the same biblical word ahavah.
• Agape / Love: Also not referenced directly in the episode, this 2017 video explores the same biblical word, agape.
• Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.

SHOW MUSIC

• “Clouds ft. ahmo” by Lofi Sunday
• “Warm Hugs” by Lofi Sunday & Cassidy Godwin
• “Snowflakes” by Aves
• BibleProject theme song by TENTS 

SHOW CREDITS

Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer, who also edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie. Special thanks to our guest JoDee Atherton.

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